About the National Association for Interpretation (NAI)

The National Association for Interpretation (NAI) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit professional organization dedicated to advancing the profession of heritage interpretation, currently serving about 5,000 members in the United States, Canada, and over thirty other nations. NAI provides benefits to members who work at sites such as parks, beaches, lakes, deserts, gardens, forests, historic sites, cultural sites, museums, nature centers, zoos, aquariums, theme parks, commercial tour companies, and anywhere that informal heritage education programs are offered to the public - all of them "places people visit". Commercial and institutional members include those who provide services to the heritage interpretation industry. For more than 50 years, NAI and its parent organizations have encouraged networking, training, and collaboration among members and partners in support of our mission: inspiring leadership and excellence to advance heritage interpretation as a profession.

Wild West Region

Wild West Region is one of the 10 Regions within the NAI organization. Our region includes the entire State of Arizona, Clark County Nevada, and Southern California (zip codes 90000 - 93599). Our 500+ regional members include tour guides, rangers, interpreters, docents, volunteers, naturalists, historians, managers, curators, planners, program directors, consultants, specialists, suppliers, academicians, and institutions.

What is NAI?

NAI was founded in 1988 from two existing organizations, the Association of Interpretive Naturalists (founded in 1954) and the Western Interpreters Association (founded in 1965). From 1954 to 1988, AIN and WIA operated as two separate professional organizations with offices in Needwood, Maryland, and Sacramento, California, respectively. After merging to form NAI, the office was moved to Fort Collins, Colorado, creating a partnership with Colorado State University’s Department of Natural Resource Recreation and Tourism that provided initial office space. A growing staff required a move to a nearby Victorian house of 900 square feet, though CSU students continue to work in the office as interns and work-study employees. By June 2004, NAI employed 10 full-time staff and moved into a new 8400-square-foot office and training facility in the historic Old Town of Fort Collins, Colorado. Although the building is owned by NAI, space is also leased to the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory and the National Parks Conservation Association.

NAI continues to add programs, products, and services to meet the needs of a growing profession. Currently, NAI offers an annual national conference that attracts over 1,000 people, an international conference, regional and special-interest section workshops, two full-color magazines, certification and training, an association store, a publishing imprint (InterpPress), digital newsletters, and web-based services.